This paper is a preliminary report of findings from a study of racial attitudes toward black/white inequalities, conducted as part of the Social Indicators project at the Survey Research Centers at the University of California at Berkeley. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of the adult population of the five county San Francisco-Oakland Standard Metropolitan Statistical area. Data are reported for the weighted white sample of 198 respondents. It is postulated that insofar as prejudice can be regarded as a cognitive phenomenon, it comprises three elements: (1) perceptions of the nature and extent of group differences; (2) explanations of how such differences came about; and, (3) prescriptions for public policy and personal involvement to perpetuate, accentuate or diminish racial inequalities. Six baxic types of explanations. referred to as explanatory modes, are identified. Three major findings are reported: (1) explanatory modes differentially predict prescriptions endorsed; (2) respondents are differentially recruited into explanatory mode categories from different segments of the social structure; and, (3) relationships between the mode positions and policy preferences are not reducible to those which exist between structural characteristics and prescriptions. (Author/JM)